Vol. 48, 2012, No. 3: 116–122 Plant Protect. Sci. Rove Beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) in an Apple Orchard Alois HONĚK1, Matúš KOCIAN 2 and Zdenka MARTINKOVÁ3 1Department of Entomology, Division of Plant Health and 3Department of Plant Ecology and Weed Science, Division of Agroecology, Crop Research Institute, Prague, Czech Republic; 2Department of Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Abstract Honk A., Kocian M., Martinková Z. (2012): Rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) in an apple orchard. Plant Protect Sci., 48: 116–122. Many rove beetle (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) species are carnivorous. Despite their positive role in the biological control of agricultural arthropod pests rove beetles are relatively poorly studied in general, and little is known about their habitat associations including their occurrence and seasonal activity in the apple-orchard environment. In 1994, abundance and composition of adult staphylinid taxocenosis was established in a 12-years-old apple orchard at Prague-Ruzyně, and compared with taxocenoses inhabiting nearby grassy ridge, winter wheat field and forest. The staphylinids were collected throughout the vegetation season using unbaited pitfall traps. Staphylinid activity was highest in the apple orchard where 28 species were established in the total sample of 1238 individuals. Dominant species Drusilla canaliculata (F.), Ocypus nero semilanatus Müller, Dinarea angustula (Gyllenhal) and Oxytelus insecatus Gravenhorst together represented 93% of the total sample. The former two species dominated also the taxocenosis of grassy ridge and could disperse to the orchard from surrounding swards. Most established species are polyphagous predators or parasitoids that might contribute to the biological control of some orchard pests. Keywords: community; grass sward; fi eld; forest; taxocenosis; seasonal dynamics; abundance; activity; diversity; similarity Rove beetles (Staphylinidae) are the most species ily Staphylinidae occurring together in the same rich family of beetles (Coleoptera) in the Czech association, Lincoln et al. 1998) in agricultural Republic (Jelínek 1993) and are an important landscape. This becomes particularly evident in part of the arthropod fauna of terrestrial habitats comparison with another “established” group of (Bohac 1999). A large number of staphylinid spe- predators, ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). A cies are predators consuming insects, arachnids, flood of publications concerning different aspects of molluscs, and nematodes. Other food specialisa- biology of carabids appears each year, most of them tions include ectoparasitism on insects, pollen concerning agroecosystems (Kotze et al. 2011). and spore eating and scavenging (Balduf 1935; Sampling of staphylinids on the ground surface Clausen 1940). Therefore the family takes part in is less easy than in carabids. Pitfall traps used to the complex of biological regulators of crop pests. sample the ground surface fauna catch dispropor- Since rove beetles have been relatively poorly tionately more carabids than staphylinids and the studied in general, it is no wonder that few stud- latter thus appear less numerous than they in fact ies concern the abundance and composition of are (Lang 2000; Shah et al. 2003; Volkmar et al. their taxocenoses (total of the species of the fam- 2004; Holland et al. 2007). An important difficulty Supported by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, Project No. 0002700604. 116 Plant Protect. Sci. Vol. 48, 2012, No. 3: 115–122 of community studies is also uneasy identification & Kocian 2003) rove beetles were sampled in a of staphylinid species. As a result, the study of suburban agricultural area ca 1000 m away from staphylinid taxocenoses in agroecosystems was the orchard, along a 400 m E–W transect crossing frequently neglected (Elliott et al. 2006). a grassy ridge (8 m wide, centred at 50°05'57.4''N, Most of the available studies of agroecosystems 14°17'51.6''E), winter wheat fi eld (transect 310 m concern staphylinid taxocenoses of field habitats long, 50°05'57.2''N, 14°17'58.8''E) and oak forest and/or abandoned or marginal sites important for (transect 80 m long, 50°05'58.0''N, 14°18'10.1''E). Th e staphylinid overwintering (Lys & Nentwig 1994; traps were operated from April 15 to September 11, Honek 1997; Krooss & Schaefer 1998a; Geiger 1996 and emptied in 2–3 d intervals. et al. 2009; Eyre & Leifert 2011). Orchards with Data processing. Since the catches were low, only a few recent studies are a typical example of numbers of individuals of particular species in each neglected habitats (Majzlan & Holecova 1993; trap were summed over the entire catching period. Balog & Marko 2007; Balog et al. 2008, 2009). At each sampling site (apple orchard, grassy ridge, In this study we report on pitfall trap sampling of a wheat field, and oak forest) we listed numbers of taxocenosis of staphylinid beetles in a 12-years-old individuals belonging to each species. From this orchard abandoned for six years. The results were data we established species richness (number of compared with a parallel study at three habitats species at each site) and calculated their diversity typical of the surrounding agricultural landscape using Shannon-Wiener index H' as follows: – winter wheat crop, a grassy ridge on its margin, and oak forest. The scope of the work was to estab- H'=-Σpi × log pi lish typical species of orchard fauna and possible where: sources of their origin in agricultural landscape. pi – proportion of the total number of individuals cap- tured at a site composed of species i MATERIAL AND METHODS The value of H' increases with the increasing number of species and decreasing differences Area and sampling. The occurrence and seasonal in their abundance. Similarity between samples dynamics of rove beetles were established in paral- caught at particular sampling sites was calculated lel at four sites: in an apple orchard, grassy ridge, using Renkonen coefficient Re as follows: winter wheat crop and adjacent oak forest. This study concerns beetles collected in a 12-years-old Re = Σmin (xip, xjp) apple orchard at Prague-Ruzyně (centred around where: 50°05'16.5''N, 14°17'58.9''E, altitude of 340 m a.s.l.). xip, xjp – proportions of species p in the samples of sites i The rectangular 100 × 250 m orchard was situ- and j ated on a mild south-facing slope and bordered by a 5–10 m wide grassy strip, bordered outside The coefficient ranges between 0 when there by a 2 m wide weed overgrown strip (Arctium are no species common to both samples and 1 tomentosum, Echinops sphaerocephalus, Urtica when the species composition and proportions dioica and other perennial weeds). The garden in samples are identical. was surrounded by fields and, on the southern Chi-square test was used to establish an as- side, by buildings. The ground surface arthropods sociation between taxocenosis composition and were sampled using pitfall traps, plastic cups 8 cm sampling site, with species catches as rows and in diameter (50 cm2 outlet area) and 11 cm deep. sites as columns of the contingency table. For each The cups were dug into the soil, with the rim flush pair of taxocenoses (orchard vs. ridge, orchard vs. with the soil surface. No bait was used. A few field, orchard vs. forest) the species were ranked pieces of soil on the bottom of the cups provided by abundance and the analysis was performed of shelter for the trapped arthropods. Five pitfall as many species as to meet the condition that no traps spaced 50 m were placed along a 230 m expected value in the contingency table is < 1 and E–W transect situated in the centre of the orchard < 20% is less than 5. parallelly to its long side. The traps were operated To establish seasonal trends in abundance the from April 12 to October 14, 1994 and emptied average catch of abundant species per trap/day in 7–10 d intervals. In the parallel study (Honk was calculated for periods between successive trap 117 Vol. 48, 2012, No. 3: 116–122 Plant Protect. Sci. servicing. Average annual catch per trap was cal- culated to compare abundance (total number of staphylinids collected over the vegetation season) at particular sites. RESULTS In the apple orchard, a total of 1236 individuals of 28 species were captured over the sampling 0.6 (A) Figure 2. Species diversity (Shannon-Wiener index) and 0.5 numbers of species (in brackets) in adult staphylinid 0.4 taxocenoses of apple orchard (sampled in 1994) and taxocenoses of grassy ridge, winter wheat fi eld and oak 0.3 forest (sampled in 1996) at Prague-Ruzyně, and their 0.2 similarity (Renkonen coeffi cient, bold numbers at the 0.1 connecting lines between the labels of taxocenoses) 0.0 110 117 124 131 152 159 166 181 189 196 203 210 217 230 237 244 251 272 287 0.9 0.8 (B) period (Table 1). Four dominant species, Drusilla 0.7 canaliculata (F.), Dinarea angustula (Gyllenhal), 0.6 Oxytelus insecatus Gravenhorst and Ocypus nero 0.5 0.4 semilanatus Müller, represented 93% of the total 0.3 sample. The majority of species was represented 0.2 by one (43% of the total established) or two indi- 0.1 0.0 viduals (21%). The staphylinid beetles were active 110 117 124 131 152 159 166 181 189 196 203 210 217 230 237 244 251 272 287 3.0 through the whole vegetation period but their Activity (C) seasonal activity differed between species (Fig- 2.5 ure 1). Ocypus nero was captured in spring and 2.0 autumn, while other species have a unimodal pat- 1.5 tern of activity peaking in June (O. insecatus) or 1.0 July (D. angustula, D. canaliculata). The activity 0.5 density (annual catches) was greater in two mar- 0.0 ginal traps placed near the grassy strip bordering 110 117 124 131 152 159 166 181 189 196 203 210 217 230 237 244 251 272 287 2.5 the orchard (327.5 ± 17.50 individuals) than in the (D) traps placed in the centre of the orchard (194.3 ± 2.0 8.82 individuals).